Stove-polish



- UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JULIUS G. POHLE, OF GEORGETOWVN, COLORADO.

STOVE-POLISH.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 501,254, dated July 11, 1893.

Application filed September 14. 1885. Serial No. 177.089. (Specimens) To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JULIUS G. POHLI'J, of Georgetown, in the county of Clear Creek, and in the State of Colorado, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Stove- Polishes; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof.

The object of myinvention is to provide an improved polish for stoves, ranges, and the like, and to this end it consists in the compound made up of the ingredients and in the form hereinafter described.

Stove polishes, as heretofore made, have consisted of plumbago, commercially known as black lead, or of compounds containing such material in various degrees of purity mixed with clay, soft soap, cheap essential oils, or with some kind of lacquers or varnishes. All of these polishes rely upon the black lead or plumbago for the gloss obtained from their application. Each of them when applied leaves a thin film of the plumbago covering the surface of the stove or range. On ordinary cook stoves and kitchen ranges the polish secured by rubbing this film seldom lasts longer than a day on the top or sides exposed to the greatest heat. If any part covered by the polish be raised to or near a red heat, the thin film of plumbago is consumed so as to lose all its gloss or polish, and a new coating has to be put on to keep a neat appearance. Even in the case of Russia sheet iron and other stoves, such as are used in sitting rooms, parlors and .offices, the polishes, as heretofore made and used, very quickly deteriorate and become dull on the parts subjected to the most heat. This deterioration is due to the partial or entire consuming of the film of plumbago, which being one form of carbon, is not incombustible, as sometimes supposed. Permanency in color and luster, desiderata which have been especially sought after by the manufacturers of stove polish es, have not then been yet secured.

It is desirable to use plumbago as an ingredient 0t stove polish, if it can be made more permanentand less combustible, as it is cheap and takes a good polish most easily.

I have found by experiment that, if phosphoric acid be mixed with plumbago or black any good kind of commercial pulverized plum-- bago I add from five totwenty-five per cent. of this acid previously dissolved in water, and thoroughly incorporate it with the plumbago. The proportion of acid which I have found to give the best result is fifteen per cent, and this proportion I prefer. Five per cent. gives partially satisfactory results, and so does twenty-five per cent. Any proportion of the acid incorporated with the plumbago renders it more permanent and less combustible, when applied as a polish than it is without the acid, as used in the stove polishes heretofore made and used. I do not then intend to limit myself to any particular proportion of the acid, though, as indicated above, I prefer fifteen per cent, as giving the best results. The amount of water to be used is just sufficient, when the acid has been dissolved in it and the resultant solution has been mixed with the plumbago, to make a plastic mass of about the consistence of plastic potters clay. This mass is then allowed to dry, or is dried by artificial heat, until it is dry enough to be-ground in a mill as is the cake of which gunpowder is made. After this dried mass has been cracked and ground in the mill, the resultant material is sized by means of sieves or screens of different sizes, and is thus obtained in granular form. When in such granular form, the material has much used as described, gives the best results and is the cheapest of the phosphoric acids. Instead of this acid, the anhydrous phosphoric and the hi and ter hydrates of the acid can be used if desired without departure from my invention, as any one of them will furnish to a greater or less degree the acid necessary to render the plumbago permanent and incombustible, as described. They are, however, not so easily or cheaply obtained and when used, or when the polish is used and heated are converted into the mono hydrated acid. The anhydrous acid becomes hydrated, of course, when it is dissolved in water before mixing with the plumbago in making the p0lish and the bi hydrate and ter hydrates become mono hydrates upon being subjected to heat, which deprives them of equivalents of water. The mono hydrate is fixed and is not de-hydrated by heat alone. Whether then the polish is made by mixing solutions of anhydrous phosphoric acid or the mono, bi, or ter hydrates of the acid with the plumbago, the result is always the same that in the manufacture or in the use of the resultant stove polish the mono hydrated acid is produced, to act as described upon the plumbago.

Instead of the uncombined acid, as set forth above, phosphate of ammonia might be used, as when the polish was subjected to heat this salt would be decomposed and would part with its ammonia so that the fixed mono hydrate of phosphoric acid would be left to act upon the plumbago, as described. The use of such phosphate would not then involve a departure from the spirit of my invention.

My polish made as and of the ingredients set forth hereinbefore, is not only cheap and very much more permanent than those heretofore made, but it takes hold on red sheet iron and covers where the ordinary kinds of polish will not, produces no appreciable dust in the act of polishing and will not spot when liquids are dropped on the stove while it is in use and the iron and polish are hot. Besides all these advantages there is no unpleasant odor from my polish when the stove or range becomes hot.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is l. A stove polish containing plumbago and phosphoric acid substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

2. In a stove polish, the combination of plumbago and mono-hydrated phosphoric acid, substantially as described.

3. The method of preventing the destructive action of heat upon the plumbago in stove polish, which consists in subjecting the plumbago in the polish to the action of phosphoric acid, substantially as set forth.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing I have hereunto set my hand this 14th day of May, A. D. 1885.

JULIUS e. PonLE.

Witnesses:

J. P. PosT, CHAS. O. PosT. 

